The committee approved spending $500,000 to hire consultants who will start evaluating the feasibility of creating a suburban water and sewer system, with an additional $2.5 million to be set aside in case it is needed. The commission’s Planning Committee approved the same measure Tuesday.

“We’ve had informal inquiries from Macomb County — they want to join,” Gerald Poisson, chief deputy Oakland County executive, said after the vote.

“They’ve got the water, and they’ve got the land,” added Robert Daddow, deputy county executive.

Poisson and Daddow told the commissioners they had been negotiating with Orr and his staff for nearly a year with little progress, and that Orr called a halt to the talks Tuesday, forcing them to make good on the threat to build a separate water system, first voiced by Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson in February.

“This is not a partisan thing — every commissioner has signed this,” said Commissioner Shelley Goodman Taub, R-Bloomfield Township, brandishing the resolution that will go before the full board on April 17 but that already has the signatures of all 21 Oakland County commissioners. Of those, 14 are Republicans; the rest are Democrats.

“I’m not in favor of duplicating systems, and I’m not trying to bash Detroit,” Zack said. “However, we all have a fiduciary responsibility to the citizens of Oakland County.”

Commissioner Jim Runestad, R-White Lake Township, told committee members that he had proposed hiring consultants to devise a suburban system because Detroit’s officials weren’t bargaining fairly.

“We’re not getting accurate figures on their costs,” which means any regional agreement risks overcharging customers for decades to come, Runestad said.

“We’re looking at a 40-year-plus time frame (being offered by Orr), and this affects so many people and so many businesses. This might be the biggest issue ever to come” to the Oakland County commissioners, he said.

Detroit’s water and sewage system provides water service to 34 Oakland communities and sewer service to 37 towns or townships. All told, the system serves more than 4 million customers in southeast Michigan.

Detroit officials have given only limited comments during the months of onerous negotiations over regionalizing the system.

As part of his plan of adjustment to pull Detroit out of bankruptcy, Orr has asked Wayne, Oakland and Macomb counties to form the Great Lakes Water Authority to manage water and sewer services to the city’s present customers. That authority would lease Detroit’s water and sewer facilities and infrastructure for $47 million annually.

On Wednesday, Bill Nowling, spokesman for Detroit’s emergency manager, told the Free Press: “The suburbs are free to pursue any alternative they believe is in their best interests.”

Detroit, which filed for Chapter 9 protection from its creditors in July, is seeking to restructure many of the city’s departments, including its Water and Sewerage Department, as part of the bankruptcy reorganization plan.